The present invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for watching videos (motion pictures) such as those of television programs. In particular, the invention is concerned with a method and an apparatus for generating or making a digest picture of a television program in order to allow the content and composition of the television program as recorded to be seized or understood easily and speedily. Furthermore, the present invention is directed to a method and an apparatus for recording a television program or programs by reservation in advance, which apparatus is imparted with a digest picture making capability or function.
Many of the television program recording apparatuses such as a video tape recorder (VTR in abbreviation) or the like now on the market are equipped with a function for recording a television program by programming the recording start and end times in advance hereinafter also referred to as the programmed recording function. By making use of this function, the user can enjoy desired television programs at any time and/or place which he or she desires. Besides, in such a case where two television programs to be watched fall within a same time period, it is possible to watch one of the television programs while the other is on a different channel being recorded so that the latter can be enjoyed later on at a time available for the user. In this conjunction, it is however noted that the television program as recorded through the reservation recording may often be left as it is without being enjoyed for the reason that a time therefor is unavailable or the user can not be reminded of or identify the recording medium such as a video tape, video disk and the like on which a television program of concern has been recorded or for some other reasons. In the worst case, the user may use a recording medium having recorded thereon a program not yet enjoyed for recording another program. In that case, the former is erased because of overwriting of the latter. Such inconveniences are ascribable partly to the fact that the video recording/reproducing or playback apparatus such as video disk recorders, video tape recorders and the like (hereinafter also referred to collectively as the video recorder or video recording/reproducing apparatus) now commercially available are not equipped with an adequate function for allowing the contents of the television programs as recorded to be confirmed speedily and easily. Besides, it is noted that all the television programs recorded by reservation in advance are not always worth viewing throughout the whole program. Some users may want to watch only a few interesting scenes of a given television program. In that case, viewing such television program throughout from the start to the end thereof takes lots of time, intolerably for the user.
Some of the video tape recorders currently on the market are equipped with a function for recording on a portion of a tape the information of a title of a television program recorded on that tape together with information concerning the date of recording for the purpose of allowing the title of the program and the date of recording to be displayed on a television screen. With such type video tape recorders, the contents recorded on a magnetic tape can certainly be checked on a program-by-program basis by using the title as a clue. However, it is impossible to display the picture information in a list in such a manner that the user can visually confirm successfully the contents of the television programs recorded on the magnetic tape.
For grasping the content of the video selected on the basis of the information of the titles displayed in a list, there may be conceived a method of viewing the video by reproducing it at a high speed. In reality, such type video recorder is known which has a function to enable the contents of the recorded television program inclusive of sound to be confirmed at a double reproducing speed i.e., at twice as high a reproducing speed as a standard or normal speed.
However, in the high-speed reproduction of a recorded television program, the video thereof is reproduced thoroughly and uniformly from the start to the end thereof, which means that those picture portions which play essentially no role in making the gist or essence of the television program be grasped are equally displayed in vain. To say in another way, the time utilization efficiency in the reproduction of the television program is for confirmation of the content thereof extremely poor. Besides, because the reproduction of a recorded television program or video is performed time-sequentially regardless of the reproducing speed, no more than one scene can be displayed meaningfully on the monitor or television screen. Thus, difficulty will be encountered in understanding consistently the composition or story of such sort of television program in which inter-scene temporal relations are important for enjoying the same, giving rise to another problem.
As a video recording/reproducing apparatus in which a video disk is employed as the recording medium, there has already been proposed a so-called disk player which is designed to output intermittently a picture signal by repeating alternatively a fast feeding or scanning operation and a normal or standard reproduction in precedence to the intrinsic reproduction, starting from a record start position of a recording disk, by means of a fast feeding mechanism, as is disclosed in JP-A-3-35431. More specifically, the fast feeding or scan operation and the normal reproduction are repeated at a predetermined time interval regardless of the contents recorded on the video disk. Since the video disk can be accessed at random, the scan time taken for the fast feeding from a current location or area to a next one is certainly negligible. However, there arises a problem that the scene of interest or importance can not always be displayed because the locations or areas to be reproduced intermittently are specified in terms of the predetermined time interval. Besides, because the picture retrieved by the normal reproduction is displayed intermittently on the whole television screen as it is, confirmation of all the contents of the video of concern will involve considerable time consumption due to need for reproduction of all the locations or areas to be reproduced, thus rendering it extremely difficult or impossible to seize all the content of the video at once.